Villanova’s national title run combined with the performance of the four other Big East schools that donned their Dancing shoes netted the conference $3.18 million this season and around $20 million over a six-year span.

The Wildcats reeled in $1.6 million during their run to winning the whole thing in truly historic fashion on Monday night, the prize money of which will be distributed — perhaps equally — to the ten Big East schools.

Update (4/6, 1pm): Per Big East associate commissioner John Paquette, their distribution formula “includes both a base payout and incentive-based components.”

The title game saw a peak of 22.3 million viewers, presenting a grand stage for the Wildcats to boost their conference’s prestige and their own program’s stature, but also line the pockets of those around them on their way there.

Even for just appearing in the Dance for the first time since 2006, Seton Hall raked in $265,791 of loot for their league; schools gets one “unit” of revenue ($265,791) for appearing in the NCAA tournament and one per round until the championship game.

The Big East totaled 12 units and therefore receive around $3.18 million from the NCAA to dole out annually for six years. Since the money gets distributed over a certain period, the payout is expected to increase to around $300,000 per unit by the end of the term.

This income stream will of course be added upon on a rolling basis based on the league’s showing in future tournaments. What we know for sure is that it gets tacked onto the $4.1 million that each school receives annually for the FOX Sports TV deal ($500m/12yr).

The late-tournament exposure should give a boost of public confidence heading into a 2016-17 season that projects the Big East as being even better; perhaps the league may draw a few more eyeballs next winter. Expect more from SHUHoops.com on the conference’s TV ratings for 2015-16 when more data is made available.